Synopsis: Comedian Dave Chappelle hosts this sketch-comedy show that parodies many of the nuances of race and culture.

Serious Jest: (Must Own) In his opening monologue of the first show, Chappelle proclaimed that this was his show, and he could do whatever he wanted. Then he kicked off a season of outrageous sketches, including: a blind, African-American White supremacist (in case you haven’t seen it, that wasn’t a typo) ; Great Moments in Hookup History; and Chappelle antagonizing a kid with cancer. He joked about pretty much every subject that was supposed to be off-limits, including race, drugs, and sex. Americans were taken by surprise. They had never seen anything this raw before. You weren’t supposed to joke about these things–at least not on a major network–but the show was so incredibly funny and witty that you couldn’t stop laughing!

The second season was even funnier: Chappelle had upper-middle-class White people running around proclaiming, “I’m Rick James, bitch!” He out-“Whut!”ed, -“Okaay!”ed, and -“Yeah!”ed Lil’ Jon. And he even had Wayne Brady pontificating, “Is Wayne Brady gonna hafta to choke a bitch?”

In any case, I can understand Chappelle’s reasons for walking out, and it takes serious courage and conviction to stand behind your beliefs like that. At the same time, I miss the hell out of that show, and I’m eagerly awaiting Chappelle’s next big project. In the meantime, I’ll keep listening to Brennan’s podcast, The Champs…it usually doesn’t take him very long before he talks about Chappelle or the show on any given episode. 😉